SCRIPTURAL TEACHING IN SCHOOLS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 958, 15 May 1879, Page 2

SCRIPTURAL TEACHING IN SCHOOLS.

The following passages of Scripture have been selected by a Conference of ministers and members of Protestant denominations in Victoria as suitable to be read' in State schools, and taught by schoolmasters : SUGGESTED COURSE OF SCRIPTURAL LESSORS FOR STATE SCHOOLS. Observation, —Considering the purpose of this course of lessons—that it is (1) to be read by children, (2) to be taught by schoolmasters, and (3) to be taught undogmatically—simply as Scriptural history and morality—it would appear undesirable to include in it a passage so fraught with exegetical difficulties as the first 11 chapters of the Book of Genesis. Nor would it appear necessary to include this passage in order to secure unity of subject. For, assuming (what no one will deny) the existence of sin in the world, it should be the great object of moral and religious instruction to show how "man may be delivered from sin and restored to filial communion with God. This object is accomplished by the history of that covenant of salvation which was made Abraham and his seed. For, as Kurtz has pointed out ('' History of the Covenant," vol. i., page 121), " the character of the history before the calling of Abraham is essentially different from that subsequent to that event." His selection constitutes a new principle in sacred history, which continues to develop till it reaches its climax in the incarnation of God in Christ ; so that in Abraham and in Christ we have the beginning and the end, the promise and the fulfilment of this one and unbroken portion of sacred history. The course then proceeds as follows ; Qlp Tektaiiext, Genesis—xii. Ir9, xiii. 1-18, xxiv. 1-67, xxvii., xxviii., xxxii., xxxiii., xxxvii. 3-36, xl., xli., xlii., xliii., xliv., xlv., xlvi. 1-7. Exodus—ii., iii., v., xii., xv. 1-18, xviii., xix., xx. 1-23 and Deut. vi. 1-9, xxxii. Numbers—xiii. 1-3, xiii. 17 —xiv. 45, xx., xxi., xxxii. 1-33,